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Capitalism Without Capital

In this session, Alan Shipman explains his recent rather crazy project arguing that capital doesn't exist. Drawing on lessons about why it's useful to analyse all big concepts carefully, the unforeseen consequences of analysing them too deeply, how prominent academics (in this case Thomas Piketty) write about one thing when they mean another, and the mysterious way that the world carries on even after all its big categories fall apart, Alan Shipman uses economic concepts to explain that everything isn’t as it initially appears!

Alan Shipman is currently involved in the new first-year social sciences module (DD103), which introduces various ways in which the social world can be investigated, interpreted and (perhaps) made better through policy choice. On the side, he recently published ‘Capitalism Without Capital’, which suggests that a key concept used by social scientists (from Karl Marx to Thomas Piketty) hasn’t really been given a consistent definition or workable measurement, and may not be very helpful in understanding the system named after it.